Ready To Go (12 page)

“Someone left theirs here,” she said, gesturing to bottles on the chipped plastic table. “Anyway, we’ve got forty minutes. Want to go get lunch?”

“Sounds good,” he replied.

They found a nearby fast food place, and Daniel paid for their burgers and sodas. As he sat down with her to eat, he asked about something that had been bugging him. “How did you end up in the library, anyway?”

“Snuck in,” she replied. “You ever read that book when you were a kid, oh, I can’t remember what it was called. It had a really long title. Anyway, there’s a couple of kids in it who run away and hide in a museum overnight. I picked up the book at the library to kill time and got the idea.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t get caught.”

“I can’t believe it either,” she said, laughing. “I actually hid in the bathroom. Totally ingenious, right?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s what they did in the book, if I’m thinking of the same one,” Daniel said. “But yeah, ingenious.”

Nicole took a few more bites of her food, and then said, “There was something gross on the floor in the bathroom. That’s why I had you buy me the shirt from the corn place, because mine got ruined.”

“Corn Palace,” Daniel reminded her.

She just rolled her eyes before continuing. “I was really scared then. I thought it was only a matter of time before I was discovered and forced to go to a homeless shelter, or worse, sent back home like a little kid. I don’t want to go back to that.”

“You don’t have to,” he said softly

She looked up at him. “Thank you.” She finally really appreciated all that he was doing for her. He was even paying for her
laundry
, and she’d been too afraid to be that nice in return. Time to move on from that.

After their lunch, they returned to the Laundromat. Nicole moved her clothes to a dryer, paid for the cycle, then leaned against the rumbling machine and sighed. “Another fifty minutes now.”

“You want to go do something?” Daniel asked.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Didn’t see anything that interesting while we were getting lunch.”

“There was a bookstore,” he suggested.

She smiled at that. “Didn’t see that there! I’ve been wanting to get a book. No offense, but sometimes talking to you gets old. I’d like to read on the road.”

“Doesn’t bother me,” he said. “It makes sense. I kind of want to get a few books too, maybe a deck of cards for the hotel.”

“And I’m guessing you want to play strip poker,” she joked.

He grinned. “You see right through me. You want me to pay for your book?”

“Duh. If you don’t mind, that is.”

Nicole got two books at the bookstore, and added them to the pile of five books and two board games in Daniel’s arms. “How long do you plan on being on the road with me?”

“I get bored easily,” he said. “You don’t want games? For the hotel?”

“I guess,” she replied. “You’re paying, right?”

“Of course. Do you want some CDs, too? Listening to the radio is starting to get a little boring,” he said.

“Sure,” she said. She headed back to the music section and began to browse the selection. “You know, you’re too nice.”

“I know,” Daniel replied.

They drove along a while longer after retrieving the clothes, and Nicole had her nose buried in one of her new books. But Daniel was bored, and he wanted to talk. “So, how did you end up on the road?” he asked, prompting her to look up from the book. “You trust me enough now to tell me?”

Nicole rolled her eyes. “It’s not that I didn’t
trust
you. It’s just…never mind. Anyway, I wasn’t planning on hitchhiking. I was just kind of stupid with money.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I saved up for a month, working at McDonald’s,” she said. “But I only got a thousand before I left. I kept it in an old pretzel jar—I don’t know why, but somehow the fact that it was used for pretzels before that always made me laugh. Like it was funny I couldn’t get a real jar. Anyway, I spent a lot of the money on a bus and a hotel.”

“You only got a thousand working in a month?” Daniel asked incredulously, thinking of his own salary. Not that he was paid minimum wage, but it still wouldn’t take that long.

“Well, I worked part time,” Nicole explained. “Balancing working and college. And I only got paid once a week, so I kept going into debt just paying for gas to get to school. But even though I quit early, quitting was so worth it. I flipped off my manager the day I left, and threw a tray of burgers on the ground, and also threw my hat across the restaurant. It was a crazy itchy polyester thing; I’d wanted to throw it since day one.”

“
You
flipped off your manager?” Daniel asked, actually laughing a bit. “I haven’t even heard you swear once.”

“Well, he deserved it,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back against the seat. “Weird thing was, I couldn’t even stop smiling at the customers. I think the place brainwashed me or something, because they were all really stupid, but I had to have a forced happy face even when I was quitting!” She paused, and smiled slightly before continuing. “Anyway, I left the next day. Spent one last night with my family, didn’t tell them I was going.”

“You didn’t even leave a note?” he asked.

“I wanted to,” she said, her smile fading. “But it would’ve ruined the point of running away, wouldn’t it? I mean, I didn’t even have my cell phone on, so I could avoid talking to them. That turned out to be a problem when I kept reaching for it to check the time. I wish I had a watch.”

The same cell phone he was charging for her as they drove? He’d disconnect it at the next stop. Or, maybe he wouldn’t. Her family was probably freaking out, and it would be good for her to talk to them. He kept silent, letting her continue her story.

“So, I bought a bus ticket the next morning and gave away way too much of my money. Probably shouldn’t have bothered watching that movie in the hotel room, ‘cause that cost me an extra twenty.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about money now,” Daniel said.

“I don’t have to worry about it
yet
,” she corrected him. “I was just lucky that by chance I’d brought all the basics for hitchhiking. Except a watch. Not knowing what time it was sucked. But I had sunscreen, so I could stand outside for a while. Otherwise I’d probably be so red right now.”

He glanced at her for a moment before returning his eyes to the road. “Yeah. You’re pale. So you hitchhiked to Pittsburgh? Where was your hotel?”

Nicole shrugged. “Some suburb. I don’t know. I was definitely outside for a while, and it was way hot.”

“Sounds terrible,” Daniel said, pitying her, or at least sounding like he did. “I think they said on the radio it was record hot that day.”

“Explains why I got all sweaty waiting,” she said. “Definitely sucked. I smelled worse than I ever did at my job—and I usually came home covered in grease, so that’s really saying something.”

“Well, no more stinking now,” Daniel said. “If you smell that bad, I’m making sure we get a good shower.” He paused. “In the room. Not … not together.”

“No, yeah, I got that,” Nicole said. “Keep saying whatever you were saying.”

“My point is, it really does suck that you had to go through that shit, but it’s over. That’s a good thing, right?”

“You have no idea,” she mumbled, looking out the window. “I’m really glad you’re helping me. I don’t want to go back to that.”

“So, what made you decide to start all this?” he asked. He spoke slowly, a little afraid she’d shut down and stop talking again.

But all she did was give him a faint smile. “I might tell you that later. It’s not something I want to talk about now.” Talking would just bring her mind back to it all.

“Okay,” he said. He looked back to the road, and she looked back to her book.

That night, Daniel was glad he’d gotten the board games from the bookstore. They decided to get one room again, not because that was all the hotel had, but because it would save some money. They were just comfortable enough together now.

He had spread out Monopoly on the bed. The two had been playing for over an hour and Nicole was losing badly. She landed on one high-priced square where he had built a hotel, and she sighed. “Okay. I don’t have enough. I lose.”

“Nah,” he said. “I won’t make you pay this time.” She grinned, and he continued, “If you take off your shirt.”

“I’m pretty sure this is a form of prostitution,” she said, but she removed the shirt anyway.

“It’s not prostitution if it’s for
fake
money,” he replied. “But next time, I’m not letting you off so easy. All the way naked.”

“But then I’ll have nothing left,” she said with a fake pout.

“You could give me a blow job.”

Her face soured, and she stuck out her tongue in disgust. “I think I’ll just forfeit the game.”

“Hey, it’s not
that
bad, is it?” he asked. “I mean, you’ve done that with other guys, right?”

She shook her head. “I tried once. Turns out I have a strong gag reflex. It did not end well.” Gross. “And I really don’t want to, okay?”

“Okay. You want to just end the game, then?”

“Yeah.” She leaned back against the bed as he started packing up the game pieces. “Can I have my book?”

He reached into the bag from the bookstore and tossed a book to her. She opened it and started to get lost in the world of fiction. He did the same with his own book, after the game was packed up. The two were silently content for a while, in their own worlds but lying beside each other. Their hands drifted into that bare space between them and their fingers idly brushed together.

Then a piece of music, a cell phone jingle, started playing from Nicole’s suitcase. “What’s that?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah,” he said, remembering. “I found your phone and I charged it for you.” He probably should have told her earlier, or at least turned it off for her. He’d just forgotten to do that. And now he felt pretty bad about it.

“What?” she cried. She dropped her book, losing the page she was reading, and scrambled to get to the suitcase. She pulled the phone out, and Daniel could see the panic on her face as she eagerly checked the screen. “Okay. Just a text. And another, another—I had these piled up, huh.”

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Are you
insane?
You knew I was running away! Didn’t you think I might not want my parents to contact me?” she replied, her voice rising to a yell.

“I didn’t—don’t you have any friends you want to talk to?” He didn’t know what to say to her now. “Sorry, I was trying to help.”

“You made things worse,” she accused. “They can call me now.”

“Then why did you bring it?” he asked.

“Emergency,” she said. “You know, just in case.”

He walked over to her and took the phone from her hand, examining it. “You could take the battery out.”

She shook her head. “See that tape there? The case is broken. Battery can’t come out without some other pieces falling out and then the phone’s useless. I’ll have to take it to the store to get it fixed. And I’ll probably have to change my number, too.” She bent her head down, but he could see that she was starting to cry. He couldn’t see the tears, but he heard the small sobs and saw the way her body shook with them.

“It’s going to be fine,” he reassured her. “If they call you, just ignore the call. You don’t have to talk to them.”

“But I want to talk to my mom,” she said in a voice choked by holding back tears. “I can’t tell if it’s her or my dad.” It was
not
going to be fine. If she spoke with him, heard his voice, she’d start hearing him in her head again.
I’m proud of you. You’re such a beautiful girl
. She wasn’t anywhere close to being okay with that.

Daniel wanted to know why she was okay with one parent and not the other, and though his mind made up crazy reasons, he knew that it was her business to tell, not his to ask. “I could answer it if they call, and if it’s your dad, I’ll say I found the phone somewhere. Okay?”

She looked up at him. Her eyes were red, but now she smiled. “Okay.”

Daniel leaned across the suitcase and hugged her. She needed it. Nicole gave a hiccupping sob, and he could feel her tears getting his shirt wet. “You’re going to be fine,” he murmured to console her.

“Thank you,” she said softly. “Thank you so much. I owe everything to you now.”

“No you don’t,” he said. “You’re not a damsel in distress, and I’m definitely not a knight in shining armor here, remember? You’re the girl who made up her mind to get away from a bad situation, and I’m the guy who wants to bang you.”

She laughed and pulled away so she could look at him. “I really can’t believe that you drove me all the way out here just on the off chance I might sleep with you, especially when I keep saying no.”

“Other guys do worse,” he replied. “I’m not stupid enough to trick you into thinking that I’ll die tomorrow if I don’t get laid, or to tell you that I love you when I don’t.”

“I wouldn’t believe you anyway. It’s been what, four days? Five? I forget.” She gave a smile. “It’s been a long trip, hasn’t it?”

“Every day’s kind of the same,” he replied. “But yeah, about that. I don’t know either.”

She laughed again and shook her head at him. “All right. I just want to go to sleep now. I’ll try to forget about the phone.”

“I’m going to read for a while longer,” he said. “Don’t you want to turn off the phone?”

“No,” she replied. “I’d rather let the battery run down by keeping it on.” She hoped her mom would call.

He nodded. “Well, good night.” He watched her slide under the sheets before he sat on the bed beside her. As she closed her eyes, he leaned over and gently kissed her.

She cracked open one eye. “Okay, I
might
have believed you if you said you loved me. Just because you’re being weirdly sweet to me.”

“I could stop,” he offered with a shrug.

“No,” she said. “Just. I don’t know. Good night.” She shut her eyes again.

Daniel knew she was asleep when she started snoring again, her odd little snorts. Of course he didn’t love her. If he did, he might have actually found that sound cute. Now, he just worried how he’d manage to sleep.